WRC Rally Argentina [Archive] - Motorsport Forums

steve.mandzij

3rd January 2018, 17:45

Itinerary & Road program Rally Argentina 2018 is now online (include 18 Stages + Long Stage x2 with 41.49kms) = 360.61kms ► http://bit.ly/2C7KJpA

Wow, it's all change from 2017. Notably all of Sunday's stages (I suppose the Power Stage as well) are now run in reverse order, making El Condor a hillclimb now rather than a descent, and I think vice versa for Mina Clavero. All the other stages, except for maybe Santa Rosa-San Agustin are either new or modified.

Unfortunately though the itinerary is spread too thin. It's got short gaps between morning and afternoon but all the action ends as early as 3PM on Saturday. I'd have also added another run of the SSS on Friday night, because as much as I dislike super special stages Fernet Branca is quite challenging, and it would have done well to fill in the gap after SS8 until the next day (that's how it was last year, though I might be biased towards it since it gave me the chance to see some rally action as soon as I arrived in Carlos Paz on Friday :)

It's not a bad itinerary; it's got some reasonably long stages on day 1, few superspecials and a new format for the Power Stage, but I like to live by the if it ain't broke don't fix it attitude, and I guess it would've worked for this.